{"id":1324,"date":"2019-03-05T23:27:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T04:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=1324"},"modified":"2019-03-05T23:27:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T04:27:14","slug":"did-wagner-exploit-king-ludwig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2019\/03\/did-wagner-exploit-king-ludwig.html","title":{"rendered":"Did Wagner Exploit King Ludwig?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Did Wagner exploit King Ludwig?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Luchino Visconti\u2019s magnificent four-hour film Ludwig<\/em>, the king is ingeniously cast as an\nembodiment of the Wagnerian pariah; Visconti has transformed Ludwig\u2019s story\ninto a veritable homage to Richard Wagner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Visconti\u2019s Ludwig<\/em> a credible re-enactment of history? Doubtless it could be considered a whitewash job. But not be me. Wagner remains an object of excessive condemnation and mistrust — witness Simon Callow\u2019s recent cheap shot, Being Wagner<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. In writing about Visconti\u2019s mega bio-pic for the current Wagner Journal<\/em>, I felt the need to narrate my own version of events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I contend:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs his letters confirm, Ludwig was eccentric, but certainly\nno simpleton. His instantaneous agenda was to rescue Wagner materially, and to\ncollaborate with Wagner in the project of redeeming German culture. These\naspirations were no more deranged than was Ludwig himself. . . . Ultimately,\nthe king and his composer served one another royally. Every other factor bearing\non their friendship of two decades shrinks to insignificance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My article, \u201cLudwig Revisited,\u201d greatly expands a capsule review\nI wrote for The Wall Street<\/em> Journal<\/em> last year. The Wagner Journal<\/em> itself, edited by Barry Millington, remains a\nremarkable platform for spirited and informed discussion and debate. It\u2019s also\nbeautifully produced. Would that we had a few more English-language classical-music\npublications of such caliber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what I wrote, adorned with a sampling of Visconti\u2019s breathtaking mise-en-scene:  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ludwig revisited<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did Wagner exploit King Ludwig? In Luchino Visconti\u2019s magnificent four-hour film Ludwig, the king is ingeniously cast as an embodiment of the Wagnerian pariah; Visconti has transformed Ludwig\u2019s story into a veritable homage to Richard Wagner. Is Visconti\u2019s Ludwig a credible re-enactment of history? Doubtless it could be considered a whitewash job. But not be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-lm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1324"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1334,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions\/1334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}